Does child work decrease with parental income? The luxury axiom revisited in India

Type Journal Article - European Journal of Development Research
Title Does child work decrease with parental income? The luxury axiom revisited in India
Author(s)
Volume 17
Issue 4
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2005
Page numbers 649-680
URL http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejdr/journal/v17/n4/abs/ejdr200537a.html
Abstract
In this paper we analyse the determinants of child work and schooling in rural India within a bivariate probit framework. Our sample consists of 93,825 children (6-15-year-olds) from the 50th Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) in India. Our primary focus is whether an increase in the wages earned by fathers and mothers in our sample would help decrease the work done by children. Two results stand out from our analysis. First, we can confirm the luxury axiom in India: an increase in mothers' and fathers' wages does decrease child work. The effect is neither continuous nor monotonic in the case of mothers' wages, however. In fact, we find that mothers' work actually increases the probability of child (especially girls') work, and this effect is mitigated by an increase in mothers' wages only when the latter increases quite significantly. Second, mothers' and fathers' education are very significant in decreasing the probability of children working. Finally, the supply of schooling is a significant determinant of the probability both of work and of schooling (though the specific variables that are significant vary for boys and girls).

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